Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"The best pop books (Paul Morley's ASK, Simon Reynolds' BLISSED OUT, Lester Bangs' PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS, Greil Marcus's LIPSTICK TRACES) should be bibles of a sort, pointers, perceptual aids to be thanked with close and repeated reading and loved in themselves for their maverick, mercurial intelligence."-- Melody Maker

"One of the best rock crit books of the last ten years" -- i-D

"The most intelligent pop writing of our time.... Reynolds avoids the pitfalls of dry academia, relying instead on an offbeat humor and knockabout intelligence that is closer to Greil Marcus than to Simon Frith. Reynolds builds bridges between abandonment and analysis, and in so doing burns them." -- City Limits

"In fine, Reynolds is the upstart this old fart has been waiting for... someone to renew my faith in human progress by proving that not everyone who swears by the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine is a faddist or a fool." -- Robert Christgau, Village Voice

"Has virtues (purpose, passion and seriousness) which most writers never touch."-- The Face

"The author.... is by far and away the best rock critic writing today.... Blissed Out is a revolutionary, feminized and educated updating of Lester Bangs' fevered rock ravings." -- Detroit Metro Times

"His style is a remarkable mix of registers: poetic, polemical, and above all sensual....Blissed Out is an exemplary blend of critical theory and 'body narrative', and stands as a text that should be required reading for any analyst of contemporary pop."-- Institute of Popular Music Newsletter